SMART Scholars Taste Success

Two SMART Infrastructure Facility scholars have been awarded prestigious scholarships to further their academic work.

Dr Etienne Turpin and Murad Safadi have received the Vice Chancellor’s Post Doctoral Fellowship and an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) respectively.

Dr Turpin, joining SMART in 2013, will use field-based research on informal water distribution networks in Jakarta to develop models of alternate urban policy regulations.

The Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Scheme was established to support outstanding early career researchers to undertake full-time research. Successful applicants such as Dr Turpin have a highly competitive track record relative to opportunity, and propose an innovative program of research with the potential to make a significant contribution to the University’s research profile and priority research areas.

Dr Turpin completed his PhD in Theory and Policy studies in 2010 at the University of Toronto. His research and teaching areas include architecture theory, design research, political economies of land use, urban aesthetics and philosophy of post-industrial environments.

Dr Turpin is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. His post-graduate project at SMART, under the supervision of Professor of Simulation, Pascal Perez, will rely upon his existing research collaborations in Indonesia as well as contact with the Urban Poor Consortium to advance data collection and inform his modelling. He will be co-supervised by Professor Ian Buchanan from the Faculty of Law, Humanities and The Arts.

Dr Turpin’s project aims to demonstrate the urgent need to re-think the place and role of the urban poor in urban planning.

Mr Safadi will use his APA investigate the factors influencing the successful developments of IT projects in public-private partnerships under the supervision of SMART’s Professor Pascal Perez and Associate Professor Rajeev Sharma from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences.

The proposed research focussed on exploring how effective IT governance and robust information systems can enhance collaboration and coordination between public and private partners to deliver cost effective solutions for Australian infrastructure.

Mr Safadi’s cross-faculty supervision is an example of SMART’s philosophy of transdisciplinary cooperation and strong links with other units at the University of Wollongong.